Longer and More Compelling Version of "Texas Here We Come"

(Warning: this gets a little touchy-feely at the end)

So many of you know already that last fall Jasper applied for a residency program doing ENT with the Army last year. His top choice was to come here, so as a back up he listed Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC)as his top choice to do a transitional year should he not be accepted into the program right away.

Well, even though we felt like we were heading in the right direction when we prayed about it, Jasper still wasn't 100% sure he wanted to do ENT, aka a "stupor of thought." When he got here and it came time to schedule the elective months, he had to choose between rotating with ENT or Anesthesia before this falls residency applications were due. So he called up the program director for ENT here, and had a frank discussion resulting in the choice to pursue Anesthesia rather than ENT. The first amazing thing happened: he felt good about trying for Anesthesia.

Jasper had never rotated through Anesthesia during medical school, so there was no way of knowing that he'd enjoy it SO much. That's right: when he rotated in that field for the prescribed 4 weeks, he loved everything about it! He loved the procedures, he loved building an almost instant rapport with the patients before and after--the more he did it, the more he knew that's what he wanted to do as a profession. (Side note: I was a little disappointed when he said he wanted to make the switch. As a singer, I had romanticized the idea of being married to an ENT. I soon got over it when I learned that they have a very good quality of life, meaning the HAVE a life.)

Now to the part where he applies. He sends all the paperwork (including a phenominal letter of recommendation from a well respected doctor/officer) into the Army folks ranking Washington D.C. #1 and Texas #2, with a General Medical Officer Tour (GMO-that's another story) as the only other alternative. Well, he did a phone interview with Walter Reed, and tried to get a phone interview with BAMC, and was never able to. Even though that hadn't worked out, he still felt like he'd done all he could do.

So as the match day approached we felt like we had experiences and moments of inspiration that prepared us for the results (much like last years results experience). Jasper's mom had the impression that the letter sent in would have a lot of pull. My dad and Jasper had the impression long ago, when we were applying for ENT, that we would end up in San Antonio. I had the impression that we would be "pleasantly surprised" the night before as I prayed in gratitude for whatever was about to happen. We had been praying for a miracle since there would be other GMO/Transitional docs applying for the only two spots for them. We just KNEW that the results would be what we needed. We just weren't sure HOW that would all unfold.

We had thought the results would be given on Monday, and were preparing ourselves to find out (it was a lot easier once we'd gone through it last year), only to have Jasper get an e-mail saying they'd get the results early Wednesday morning!!! Well, if we had been patient up until then, we felt the tension mount over the course of that one disappointing day. The other days went by fast, and we speculated as to whether or not our miracle we'd been praying for was occurring during these extra two days. Regardless, we were pleasantly surprised to find out he'd be doing Anesthesia at San Antonio--where he hadn't even interviewed! We have our miracle, and are SO grateful and humbled by our receiving of it. We are sure this is what the Lord wants us to do be doing as individuals and as a family. It's been an amazing learning experience and is making us better disciples of Christ as a result.

Thank you to our dear, supportive family and friends both new and old. We love you all so much and appreciate you all! We can't wait to enjoy our remaining months here in WA, and look forward to our time in TX. Huzzah!